Success as a player for the University of Massachusetts softball team, the mentoring influence of the team’s coach and a lifelong involvement in athletics helped inspire Sherri Kuchinskas to become a sports medicine physician.

Kuchinskas, now 43, treats sports-related injuries of all types at Hampshire Sports Medicine and Orthopedics in West Hatfield and is a member of the medical staff at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton.

While playing catcher for UMass from 1989-1993, she was named an All-American twice under longtime head coach Elaine Sortino, who passed away last August at age 64 from cancer. During her junior year, the team had one of its most successful seasons in history, finishing third in the NCAA College World Series.

But once her collegiate career was over, Kuchinskas needed to figure out her career path. Harkening back to her days playing basketball and softball in high school, and later her athletic endeavors at UMass, Kuchinskas said those experiences—and the encouragement from Sortino—gave her the confidence to attend medical school at St. Louis University and earn her degree.

“In some ways, softball gave me direction, but Elaine had a huge role in helping people develop not only as softball players but in how to become goal-driven and work hard at a task,” she said. “There are a lot of things that correlate between playing a team sport under somebody like Elaine and how that transitions into doing things like going to medical school and having a direction.”

Kuchinskas said during school she was probably not fully aware how much playing collegiate-level softball and the connections with Sortino and other players would positively impact her later in life.

“Particularly over the last few years when Elaine was ill and then passed away a lot of the former players have become much closer. Through those kind of bonding experiences you realize what Elaine did for so many people and the influence that went way beyond how many wins and losses we had,” Kuchinskas said.

Once she made the decision to attend medical school, Kuchinskas knew right away it would be in sports medicine. Today, her practice at Hampshire Orthopedics is non-surgical sports medicine, which includes evaluation, assessment, rehabilitation and other treatments for people injured playing sports. Kuchinskas also serves as one of the team physicians for athletic programs at UMass, Smith College and Amherst College and as medical director for the Springfield College athletics program.

“My goal is to get these athletes and weekend warriors and a lot of other people that fall into this category back to doing what they want to do and maintaining their function,” she said.

Such was the case for Springfield College basketball player Jaimie Bickelhaupt, who last year suffered a tear in the soft tissue in her hip while playing during pre-season. The team’s trainer suggested she see Kuchinskas, who after evaluating Bickelhaupt’s injury, recommended cortisone shots be injected into the hip joint.

“After the shot I had to rest for about a week but then was able to play without any pain. Dr. K was really good about letting me know what I could and couldn’t do,” said Bickelhaupt, 21, and now a junior.

A return of hip pain this past pre-season sent Bickelhaupt back to Kuchinskas for a second cortisone shot. The results were good enough to help Bickelhaupt not only return to full-time playing for the team but also saw her earn MVP honors in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference tournament.

Not without the experience of injury herself, Kuchinskas suffered two torn ACLs playing high school basketball and had reconstructive surgery to repair them. Those experiences may have been the beginning of her interest in healing those hurt doing what they enjoy, she said.

“I was interested in the association of what it took to get back into playing and what the roles were of people involved in that,” she said. “It just kind of came together and seemed like a very good combination of experiences that would work for me.”